The Short Story: The VCU Rams pitching staff came out to play on Saturday afternoon, only allowing two total hits on the game as they defeated the Oakland Golden Grizzlies by a final score of 4-1. Junior Mitchel Lacey returned to the lineup in a big way, smacking his first home run of the season, finishing with a three-hit effort on the day.

LEADING OFF

Lacey finished his day 3-for-4 with a double and home run, scoring two runs with an RBI. The three hits would give Lacey his second multi-hit game of the season.

Josh Simon and Haiden Lamb each finished with multi-hit efforts, each going 2-for-3 on the day. Simon's two hits gave him his first multi-hit game of his career.

Connor Gillispie kept up his dominance, only allowing one hit and no runs over four innings of work.

HOW IT HAPPENED

After two scoreless innings to start, VCU jumped on the board in the bottom of the third. Darian Carpenter was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and moved up to third on a Logan Farrar single into right field. Oakland starting pitcher Tyler Palm then threw a wild pitch, scoring Carpenter and giving VCU the 1-0 lead.

Lacey then came out ready to hit in the bottom of the fourth, leading off the inning with a solo home run, his first of the season to extend the VCU lead to 2-0.

Oakland would fight back for one in the top of the fifth, as the Golden Grizzlies were able to put a couple runners on. With one out, Myles Zilinsky sent a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Ryan Fitzgerald and cutting the VCU lead to 2-1.

VCU got their lead back to two runs, 3-1, as Simon drove in Lacey from second with a single up the middle in the bottom of the sixth.

The Rams loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning, and were able to snag a run as Lamb drew a walk to force in a run, giving VCU a 4-1 lead.

Sam Donko recorded the final four outs for VCU, grabbing his fifth save of the season.

WHAT'S NEXT

VCU will return to action tomorrow, Sunday, March 12 as they will face Oakland for Game 3 of their three-game weekend series at The Diamond. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. as VCU will look for the series sweep.